Chinese mainland’s January box-office lowest since 2015

The Chinese mainland box office brought in a total of 3.36 billion yuan ($499 million) in January, 1.59 billion lower than the same period in 2018 for a 32.1 percent year-on-year decrease.

It was also nearly 33 percent lower than the same period in 2017 and 19 percent lower than January 2016.

Hollywood Transformers prequel Bumblebee was the box-office champion of the month, taking in 1.11 billion yuan since its premiere on January 4. Its Chinese mainland earnings accounted for about 37 percent of all earnings by overseas films. Chinese animated film White Snake and comedy Kill Mobile came in second and third place with 372 million yuan and 365 million yuan respectively.

Notably, White Snake, which was not highly anticipated when it was released on January 11, managed to become the box-office champion for single day earnings on January 31 for the first time.